Programming

The theme "Devenirs mutuel·le·s" inspired me to create the "coopté·e·s" project to highlight different aspects of life in a housing cooperative. Living in a co-op means gaining an inestimable privilege: a reprieve from capitalism and housing insecurity.It's also a daily challenge with a plethora of sub-aspects, sometimes obvious but often unexpected (ranging from capacitism to getting along, organizational challenges and even legal procedures). If cooperatives are communities, there's no denying the efforts and energies that go into making them work. Finally, it is a legacy of militant battles for access to affordable housing and an alternative to the landlord-tenant relationship. I think it's crucial to remember and reflect on this, as we look towards the future.

I'd like to use the brief form of the illuminated sign to illustrate this process of mutualizing space, resources and perspectives, with its ups and downs, its flaws and successes. In this way, I want to reveal how a housing cooperative takes shape, and what it represents for the members who live there, based on the testimonies of various people who live in cooperatives. My poetic sequence will thus present cooperative life in a way that provokes reflection and discussion on our ways of living through the eyes of the " coopté·e·s ".

virginie fauve

Originally from Abitibi, virginie fauve lives and works in Montreal. A volatile literary artist, she writes poetry and prose, magazines and fanzines, sometimes in the form of events or performances. She is particularly interested in women's literary history, independent publishing and the printed arts. Her first collection, La poussière nous cerne parce qu'elle nous ressemble, was published by Lézard amoureux in 2022.